Denny this is the third photo you have posted with that stunning B/W – almost illustration quality image (Prick, Begging Leaf and Primed). How are you achieving that gorgeous quality to those images? Love them.
The photos Dawn mentions combine forgiveness of stupidity, good luck, and the monochrome function of Adobe Camera Raw. Because they were shot against light (snow) backgrounds, and because I hadn’t figured out how to adjust my Canon to over-expose the scenes, the camera exposed for snow, underexposing the vines and branches. So in ACR, I had to add up to two stops of exposure to bring out the detail in the shadows. I added contrast, heightened the highlights, deepened the blacks, and added “clarity.” Then I used the monochrome tab’s sliders (one each for red, yellow, orange, etc.) Playing with the orange and yellow sliders allowed so much control over contrast and intensity. They’re more responsible for the high-contrast, illustrator look than all the other steps, methinks.
5280 Lens Mafia 
Denny this is the third photo you have posted with that stunning B/W – almost illustration quality image (Prick, Begging Leaf and Primed). How are you achieving that gorgeous quality to those images? Love them.
The first one especially looks like it was staged and lit in a studio, the light is so perfect.
The photos Dawn mentions combine forgiveness of stupidity, good luck, and the monochrome function of Adobe Camera Raw. Because they were shot against light (snow) backgrounds, and because I hadn’t figured out how to adjust my Canon to over-expose the scenes, the camera exposed for snow, underexposing the vines and branches. So in ACR, I had to add up to two stops of exposure to bring out the detail in the shadows. I added contrast, heightened the highlights, deepened the blacks, and added “clarity.” Then I used the monochrome tab’s sliders (one each for red, yellow, orange, etc.) Playing with the orange and yellow sliders allowed so much control over contrast and intensity. They’re more responsible for the high-contrast, illustrator look than all the other steps, methinks.